Datastream Chart Blog

US CPI inflation data for April showed that headline CPI inflation fell to 1.1% – the lowest since 2010. Combined with already very weak Personal Consumption Expenditure price inflation data for March, this presents a very weak inflation picture for the US economy. Refresh Chart   Edit Chart The FOMC’s targeted measure of inflation is [...]

The Nikkei is at a five and a half year high after the yen broke through the psychologically important benchmark of 100 against the US dollar. The falling yen continues to fuel the Japanese equity rally. Refresh Chart   Edit Chart The yen has fallen some 20% against a basket of currencies since late November, [...]

Fresh labour market data from Athens offered a sombre reminder of the painful impact of five years of recession amidst harsh austerity measures. Refresh Chart   Edit Chart The Greek youth unemployment rate jumped from 59.3% in January to 64.2% in February. And that number has risen by more than thirty percentage points over the [...]

April proved to be a somewhat volatile and uncertain month for investors in many asset classes, as traders proved ready to take profits on the first sign of trouble and as the economic overview remains murky at best. The second quarter of 2013 got off to a bumpy and uncertain start in April. On the [...]

In its March budget, the UK government unveiled a programme to aid potential homeowners. The scheme, dubbed ‘Help-to-Buy’, will allow purchasers to secure a mortgage with just a 5% deposit. In order to achieve this, the government will underwrite 14.25% of the value of the property, with the lender required to guarantee a further 0.75%. [...]

Bank deposits data offer one of the best signs of stress in the Euro Area: deposits tend to flee peripheral economies when the financial system appears fragile, and only return once confidence is restored. The ECB recently published figures relating to the end of March – just one working day after Cypriot banks re-opened their [...]

Over the past decade the Bank of Japan has more than doubled the monetary base with little or no effect on the real economy. Now it plans to double it again – this time within just two years. Although the recent policy statement has a material impact on financial market pricing, we see a very [...]

US retail sales fell unexpectedly by 0.4% in March. Put together with a disappointing payrolls figure, and a weaker-than-expected reading on the manufacturing ISM, the retail sales data add to concerns that the US economy entered something of a soft patch last month. However, while fiscal consolidation will weigh down on US growth this year, [...]

The headline US unemployment rate fell to 7.6% in March as a 206k decline in employment on the household survey was more than offset by a 496k drop in the size of the labour force. As a result, the participation rate fell to 63.3% – its lowest level since 1979. If participation had remained flat [...]

In spite of renewed signs of turmoil in Europe, as the government of Cyprus struggled to prevent the collapse of its banking sector, investors continued to display their confidence in financial assets and once again, stocks and other “risk on” asset classes led financial markets higher in most corners of the world. The investment universe [...]